Enhancements to R.A.V.E and PHOTO-PAINT, but disappointingly little
new power for the DRAW user.

At one point the launch of each new release of the CorelDRAW suite was
a major event - much like each new version of Photoshop is today. Over
the last five years, however, Corel has squandered its early dominance
of the PC design world and now Adobe and Macromedia lead the pack. So
does this latest version 11 mark a return to form or a further decline?

In terms of its core drawing capabilities I've always been a fan of DRAW's
tools and approach, but there's certainly no harm in improving the basics.
To help in this there are new tools for drawing rectangles, ovals and
curves by specifying three points, a new Pen tool which acts as simpler
version of the existing Bézier tool and a Polyline tool which lets you
quickly alternate curved and straight lines. You can also now set the
snapping threshold that controls how near objects must be before they
exert a magnetic pull on others.

Once you've drawn your lines and objects you've also got more editing
options. Particularly useful is the ability to quickly join multiple paths
into a single object with control over how the line segments close. There
are also three new options - simplify, front minus back, back minus front
- for combining and intersecting objects. Most useful of all are the new
pressure-sensitive Smudge and Roughen tools which add bulge and ripple
effects to an object's outline - ideal for preventing vector artwork looking
too clinical.

The feature that Corel is highlighting most in the new DRAW is the ability
to turn your objects into symbols. This is certainly simple as all you
have to do is drag your selection onto the new Library docker window.
From here you can drag multiple copies or "instances" of the symbol back
onto your image that you can resize, rotate and reposition. As well as
consistency the main advantage is that if you edit the master, all instances
are also automatically updated.

DRAW's biggest new feature is support for symbols.

Existing users are probably thinking "what's so new about that?" as CorelDRAW
has long offered object cloning which offers the same benefits. And to
my mind they'd be right. The new symbol handling really doesn't make much
difference to image creation - especially as CorelDRAW doesn't offer the
advanced symbol brushes and restyling capabilities of the recent Illustrator
10. Where symbols are important is in Web imaging as they enable output
file sizes to be crushed.

Of course symbols aren't much use for bitmap output, but at least Draw's
GIF and JPEG optimization has seen some improvement - you can now save
settings, for example, and output to JPEG2000 format (though browser support
for this is currently negligible). Where symbols do become important is
for Web vector formats. Draw's SVG output has been radically improved
with support for compressed SVGZ format, presentation attributes styling,
character sub-setting and so on.

The most popular Web file standard where symbol-based handling really
comes into its own is the Flash SWF format. Flash authoring is seeing
explosive growth at the moment and Corel offers the dedicated R.A.V.E.
2 (Real Animated Vector Effects) application for exactly this purpose.
It might be a dedicated application but effectively it's just DRAW with
a Movie menu and a Timeline and I still can't see why its functionality
isn't offered within the main application (except for the obvious marketing
benefits to Corel).

Other than these doubts about its standalone nature, my opinions of the
first version of R.A.V.E. were mixed. With the ability to create animations
by handling editable blends it certainly let you produce striking effects
very quickly. Set against this though was the difficulty of handling more
complex animations, the bandwidth-demanding end results and the lack of
any interactive control. Ultimately I felt that R.A.V.E. wouldn't really
get used that much.

In this new release R.A.V.E's impact factor is even greater. You can
now tween text on a path - animating such factors as text position and
text properties; tween Perfect Shape properties - animating size, position,
fill and outline properties; and even tween 3D vector extrusions - animating
light source, colour and intensity. You can also now quickly preview your
animations in your favourite browser.

R.A.V.E. also includes more serious professional capabilities such as
the ability to set up nested sprites. Sprites are re-usable symbols with
their own independent timeline - essential for example to set up an animation
of a man walking across the screen. To help ensure minimum file sizes
as well as symbol support R.A.V.E. now allows text to be output as system
text rather than curves. Most important of all is the new support for
behaviours. These are very basic compared to Flash MX's ActionScript but
they do let you control the timeline, fetch URLs and load new movies.

As well as symbol support, R.A.V.E. sees the introduction of basic
behaviours.

All told, R.A.V.E. is certainly no longer a gimmick and can be used to
produce some impressive work. Even so it still majors on bandwidth-heavy
high impact animations and it just can't compete with the latest Flash
MX in terms of efficiency, multimedia capabilities or interactivity. In
other words, while R.A.V.E. 2 now makes a useful Flash add-on utility,
I still doubt whether many users are going to use it to produce finished
work.

Ultimately I'm just not convinced that R.A.V.E. or the latest PHOTO-PAINT
(see boxout) really cut it. If you don't already have a photo editor or
Flash authoring package they'll get you up and running, but advanced users
will soon hit a ceiling and professionals will have to look elsewhere.
In the final analysis the Corel Graphics Suite stands or fails by the
central DRAW module - so what else is new?

Not a lot. There are a couple of minor text handling improvements with
the ability to keep or discard formatting when cutting and pasting from
other applications and the ability to directly convert paragraph text
to curves while maintaining formatting such as justification and bullets
(this is particularly useful as it allows you to then apply effects such
as graduated transparencies to your text). Import and export filters have
also been updated including an enhanced Micrografx/Corel Designer DSF
import that supports layers, fills and text formatting, an enhanced Photoshop
PSD export that supports layers and transparent backgrounds and an enhanced
Acrobat PDF engine that supports symbols, transparency types and mesh
fills. But that's about it.

So what's the final verdict? A market-leading solution doesn't become
a bad choice overnight and there's still a vast amount of power in the
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite box. Having said this, DRAW has been desperately
treading water for the last few releases and now it's definitely getting
weaker. Even worse, what little development there has been has been focused
on R.A.V.E. and PHOTO-PAINT - satellite applications which many users
won't even install! Without a cutting edge there's little reason to upgrade
and advanced users will look elsewhere. There's more to attract the mid-range
user but, if the latest features really aren't important, why not choose
Corel's own cut-down and excellent value Essentials?

It wasn't too long ago that Corel was advertising the CorelDRAW Graphics
suite as "the choice of the professionals" - sadly it's getting increasingly
hard to make that case.

Corel PHOTO-PAINT 11

At one stage Corel had ambitions for PHOTO-PAINT to become a serious
rival to Photoshop. In fact with its pioneering introduction of features
such as re-editable vector text and a multiple undo, there was a period
where it was arguably the more powerful. PHOTO-PAINT never really made
it as a standalone contender however, and now is only available as part
of the Graphics suite.

In the last version 10 release it almost looked as if Corel had stopped
development entirely, but thankfully that's not the case. To begin with,
the clean modern and streamlined interface which has always been one of
PHOTO-PAINT's major strengths has been given a revamp. The most obvious
differences, apart from the same ugly command icons as used in DRAW, are
the colour control box at the bottom of the toolbox and the simplification
of the context-sensitive Property Bar to prevent the more advanced options
from intimidating users.

This new mid-range focus is also clear in PHOTO-PAINT's new power which
is heavily focused on the PC photography user. There's support for accessing
digital cameras via Windows Image Acquisition under Me and XP as well
as support for EXIF camera-based data. There's also a new Red Eye Removal
tool that replaces any unwanted red hue with its grayscale equivalent.

PHOTO-PAINT's new filters are also concented on the digital camera user.
The Spot Filter effect is particularly good for simulating depth of field
settings so that you can retrospectively set the focus of your image while
the Lens Flare lets you add the rings of light that you get if you point
your camera at a bright light source. The Lighting Effects and Dust and
Scratches filters have also been enhanced to help bring existing photos
to life, while the Photo Stitch dialog now lets you rotate your component
images to help in the production of panoramas.

Features like red-eye removal and lens-based effects are aimed at
digital camera users.

After PC photography, PHOTO-PAINT 11's secondary focus is the Web. One
of the most common of Web effects is the 3D button and PHOTO-PAINT now
offers a dedicated Bevel effect complete with control over edge texture,
and lighting brightness, ambience and direction. Once created, you can
now treat your buttons separately by dividing your images into sections
with the new Image Slicing tool and specify links and optimization settings
in the Image Slicing docker which provides the same customizable presets
as DRAW. Using the new Rollovers palette you can also turn your slices
into image states and Corel PHOTO-PAINT will manage their output and the
HTML code necessary to bring them to life.

Image slicing and web optimization have been improved.

These are useful advances, but it's a sign of how far PHOTO-PAINT has
fallen behind that they weren't already there. More to the point, even
now, none of the features is exactly state-of-the-art. The Bevel effects
aren't live and editable, for example, and are seriously underpowered
when compared to rival packages' style-based formatting. Likewise with
the optimization control which is still awkward and under-powered while
the rollover handling is definitely only intended for occasional use.

This settling for acceptable power rather than aiming higher is true
of PHOTO-PAINT as a whole. This is particularly clear with PHOTO-PAINT's
new masking capabilities. This is an area where Corel has particular expertise
with its dedicated KnockOut application but instead of grafting on similar
professional control it has opted for a much simpler and cruder solution.

While PHOTO-PAINT retains some unique strengths, such as its frame-based
video editing and creation and its modern streamlined interface, it's
no longer aimed at the high-end professional - or even the aspiring user.

The Rest of the Suite

CorelDRAW has never been a standalone application, it has always come
as part of a suite and it's no different in this release. Alongside the
main trinity of DRAW, PHOTO-PAINT and RAVE, you'll find a whole range
of supporting utilities including CorelTRACE for converting bitmaps to
vectors, CorelCAPTURE for managing screenshots and Microsoft Visual Basic
for Applications for developing custom solutions. There are also bundled
applications from other developers including a cut-down version of ScanSoft
OmniPage for OCR and Bitstream Font Navigator for managing your fonts.
And as usual a wide selection of fonts and clipart are also included in
the box.

If you think of these add-ons as free they're undoubtedly welcome additions.
More realistically, you are paying for them at some level and, if you
don't use them, the benefit of Corel's bundling strategy is much more
debatable.

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